Time to dig out those old cassettes?

[retrohimpi]

This article was in the magazine section of my paper today. I'd no idea that blank cassettes are now worth a small fortune.

Does anyone else still have their old cassette collection? I keep meaning to digitise those I couldn't replace with CDs, but haven't got round to it yet.

 

[Unknown_K]

Yes, I still have my old tapes (some have degraded over time from use and heat). I also have a small pile of unopened Sony and TDK metal tapes that I used to record compilations plus all the ones with music on them (they last a long time).

I also kept my Technics dual tape deck (Dolby B, C, HXPRo) with digital meters for both left and right and a 5 disk Technics CD changer that allowed you to chose songs from all 5 CDs and dump them onto both sides of a casette (you entered the tape size) without cutting any songs in half.

Looking on ebay it doesn't look like sealed tapes are worth what they originally sold for yet, so there is no rush to sell them off. Luckily I was purchasing the good metal formulated ones when they were being dumped (but I should have saved a few more). Heck if I found some cheap I might buy some more.

 

[barythrin]

Interestingly and I thought I posted that recently but my mom found a bunch of disney tapes (audio story books) that I and my little brother listened to as little kids. I think they had a story/picture book with them as well. Anyway now that we're adults and looking at having kids of our own my mom thought it'd be interesting to see if the tapes were still good so we could mp3 them and use them still or for the future. I figured the tapes 50/50 on whether they were good still but wth we'd try. We found a few tape players/walkmans. Got out the first tape and walkman, new batteries and an external speaker but nope nothing good happening there.. it played for a second then faded out and nothing. Ok probably bad tape.. but let's try it on this other walkman. Hm.. actually very faint we can hear the tape but sorta consistent. I figure maybe the magnetic strength has faded which made sense in my head. Ok let's try it in my old tape player (my first "jukebox" as a kid .. wow what odd memories in itself) tape played fine. Did the same thing on the other tapes and all are fine.

So... very oddly enough it was quite the opposite than I expected. Tapes seem to be fairly reliable, it's the player that craps out from my experience. I think a magnetizing tape might help the players or maybe just some cleaning solution and q-tip but was certainly a notable experience as I would have thrown the tapes away if I hadn't experienced that. Freaked me out thinking of data tapes disposed of due to bad players >:-(

BTW here I bought a pack of blank tapes at Walgreens for not too terribly much during the Pet Alive gig. We wrote that memory test program on my 8032, I used a tape drive I haven't ever tested out before but hasn't been used for at least 5 years just in my collection and one of the new tapes and it (once we got our syntax right) worked perfect.

Not sure why a blank tape would yield so much money. Maybe I should hit the store then ebay ;-)

 

[Unknown_K]

The tapes referenced in the article where metal formulation and cost quite a bit new ($6 each on up if I remember correctly). You had the common junk type 1 iron oxide tapes, the much better chromium tapes, and then the high end metal tapes. Your recording equipment had to adjust the bias to use the better tapes, and your playback deck had to do the same. Using a quality metal tape on a good recording deck with dolby C noise reduction and HX pro (kept the tape from clipping if you screwed up the gain while recording) would make some very good recordings from a CD (you had to have a good tape deck to play it back as well). Quite a few people still have tape decks in their cars (especially when they have an older car that only takes the knob type stereo like my old corvette without doing some major permanent hacking).

Metal tapes were not that common when new, so I can see there being a shortage these days of unused shrinkwrapped ones.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I don't think I bothered much with the metal tapes, just the CrO2 ones. I'm on my second Nakamichi drive and don't really have any complaints.

I remember when the cassettes first came out, complete with the Philips recorders. My reaction was "what are they thinking?" A narrow tape with very little protection. I wondered why 3M never adapted its much-superior data cartridge (e.g. DC600A) technology to audio.

My reaction was double that to the Datasonix Pereos backup drive.

 

[Unknown_K]

I lusted after the Nakamichi tape drives way back when (they even made a car deck), but they were very expensive even used at that time. Odd you went with a top brand deck and just chrome tapes.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I lusted after the Nakamichi tape drives way back when (they even made a car deck), but they were very expensive even used at that time. Odd you went with a top brand deck and just chrome tapes.

For what I was doing (mostly OTA taping), it was good enough. I see the Nakamichis for low double-digits now on the used market. Great machines.

My motto: Wait long enough and the expensive gizmos will become cheap. Consider, oh, the price of a loaded 386 system, then and now...

I've got 4mm DDS drives that I can't give away. Remember how expensive DAT drives (audio) were in the US? Because of the RIAA's lobbying, you had to sneak them in from Europe. Even today, there are many US audiophiles who aren't aware of their existence.

 

[Unknown_K]

Well if you are giving away a DAT Audio drive let me know. Those devices (especially the handheld ones) were very popular with bootleggers who had home made concert tapes to trade around. DAT lasted longer then DCC and minidisc and atleast was used in the studio for master tapes.

I have a nice selection of DAT backup drives from DDS1 to DDS4, you had offered a multi tape loader one that did audio but judging from the post on the CC list the belt went bad (you never replied to me).

 

[Chuck(G)]

Not the belt, but all of the friction rollers turned to goo. Probably not worth salvaging, given that there are 4 of them and the goo's worked its way into everything, which is why I didn't pursue it. If you still want it, I've got it, but be warned.

I still have a little Sony Walkman DAT drive. It still works fine--built like a Swiss watch.